The present disclosure relates generally to content browsers for use in computer systems and in particular to navigating among content items in a browser using an array mode.
Content browsers are found on many types of computer systems, from desktops to tablets to handhelds. Usually implemented as software, a browser enables a user to view and interact with content items. For example, in the case of the World Wide Web, a web browser allows a user to enter a uniform resource locator (URL) for a particular content item (often referred to in the web-browsing context as a web page) and view the item in a page-display area of the browser. The user can interact with the displayed web page, e.g., by activating hyperlinks embedded in the page and thereby navigating to a different page.
A number of existing web browsers support a mode that is frequently referred to as “tabbed” browsing. The browser maintains the URLs and/or actual content of multiple pages in association with various “tabs”; common usage in the art describes this state of affairs variously as having pages open in tabs or as tabs being open. The tabs themselves, which are usually rendered to look like the tabs on file folders, appear in a tab area of the browser, e.g., at the top of the page-display area. Each rendered tab contains a title, partial title, URL or other identifier for the page that is currently open in that tab. At any given time, one tab is the “active” tab; the page that is currently open in the active tab is rendered in the page-display area and is the active page. All user input is processed in the context of the active page. The user can change the current page for a tab. For example, if the user selects (e.g., clicks on) a hyperlink in the active page, the browser will typically replace the page with the linked-to page, which is typically opened in the currently active tab and becomes the current page for the active tab. Thus, each tab can have its own history of pages viewed in that tab.
The user can switch to a different tab by selecting (e.g., clicking on) any of the non-active tabs in the browser, whereupon the selected tab becomes the active tab, and the current page associated with that tab is rendered in the page-display area and becomes the active page for the browser. In connection with this transition, the tab area usually changes to indicate the new active tab. The user can also create a new tab or close an open tab by operating various controls provided in the browser's user interface. Thus, tabbed browsers may allow an arbitrary number of tabs to be open at any given time, with each tab having its own current page and page-view history.
Tabs provide a useful way to manage content, and users often find it convenient to maintain a large number of open tabs. However, as the number of open tabs increases, finding a particular page becomes a challenge. The page name or other label in the tab may be insufficient for the user to recognize the page she is seeking, and in some cases not all tabs may be visible due to the limited size of the browser relative to the number of tabs that may be open.